Scripture
10And don’t let anyone call you ‘Teacher,’ for you have only one teacher, the Messiah. 11The greatest among you must be a servant. 12But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Matthew 23:10-11
Observation
Before Jesus launches into a scathing condemnation of the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of His day He makes it clear what His true followers are here to do. We are here to serve. There’s no room for self-promotion and self-exaltation and self-preservation when we’ve been called to lay our lives down like Jesus. In fact, Scripture makes it clear that this is what we’ve been anointed to do!
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4:18–19
21Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.2 Corinthians 1:21–22
What Jesus was given has been given to us through The Holy Spirit and we are now to give to others. We aren’t here to be served, but to follow in the footsteps of our Savior as we serve others.
Application
This week I had the privilege of getting a front row seat on what God is doing through His servant leaders here in Japan at the O’hana Retreat! This gathering of all the New Hope churches around Japan is always a highlight of my year. You can imagine how isolating it can be to follow Christ in a country where less than one percent of the population are Christians. I’m always humbled as I realize how much each person at the retreat has had to give up in order to follow Christ. Because they have had to say no to family, friends, jobs, and social status to say yes to Jesus their worship is more sincere than anything I’ve experienced elsewhere. I always cry when we are together. This was my fourth Ohana retreat and I was invited to speak a few of the main sessions and witnessed something I haven’t seen before. A fresh anointing for service was poured out, literally in our midst. Pastor John Tilton of New Hope Oahu set the tone of humility at the pastors gathering on Thursday afternoon. He admitted some of the challenges he was facing and invited other pastors in the room to come up and be anointed with oil. In an honor/shame culture such as this one in Japan it was quite impactful for a leader to admit weakness and struggle. It was a powerful time of honesty and transparency as we ministered to each other. That night my son Aden shared how he too had fallen away from the Lord, but God graciously brought him back. Over 30 people responded to the salvation call that first night! Friday morning Pastor Aaron Cordeiro of New Hope Eugene shared on the power of the servants entrance as something we are called to. Then, Pastor Higa tight a break-out session the next day on the anointing of The Holy Spirit. There were about 70 in the room and everyone was anointed with oil and received a personal flask of oil as well. I told Matt I had literally just finished a message for the closing session on the Baptism of The Holy Spirit. So, we invited those 70 people to bring their anointing oil and to be prepared to share what had been imparted to them. Then, at the end of the service I invited them to stand up and join the pastors in anointing each other with oil until everyone in the room had been anointed. Pastor Talo of New Hope Tokyo made a powerful observation after it was all over. We have never used anointing oil at Ohana Retreat before even though it is a very Biblical practice of the early church. Pastors John Tilton, Aaron Cordeiro, Matt Higa and myself hadn’t coordinated our messages and yet they all had the same emphasis- we’ve all been anointed for service. Not just pastors and leaders but every follower of Jesus being anointed to go back to serve where they wake, work and worship. It also happened to look very similar to how Jesus built His team. The anointing to serve started with 12, then 70, then 120, then 3,000 and to the ends of the earth. Something shifted in Japan this week. It was a move away from hierarchical mindset that limits the move of God through a select spiritual few and now to the restoration of the priesthood of the saints.
Prayer
Young and old, male and female, rich and poor are all anointed by Your Spirit to serve those around us. I’m so very grateful to have seen firsthand the future of Your Church in Japan. I pray for the 30 who came to You at Ohana Retreat and the 8 who came to You at New Hope Yokohama on Sunday! May that seed find root and bear much fruit in the context of this Ohana of faith! Jesus I pray that You’d continue to give the pastors and leaders here in Japan your heart to raise up and release all who have come to know You as Lord and Savior! As each person goes back to work after Golden Week I pray that would walk into their circles of influence as those who’ve been anointed by The Holy Spirit to serve!
9But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Peter 2:9
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